starry eyed
by perfectlyrose
Summary: Rose reluctantly accompanies Martha to her astronomy lecture before a night out. When she leaves, there are stars in her eyes for the gorgeous professor that Martha decidedly did not warn her about. (Fem!Ten/Rose professor/student AU)
1. Chapter 1

a fem!Ten/Rose AU for dirty-brian. complete and utter fluff

* * *

Okay, she could totally handle this, Rose thought as she settled further down into the lecture hall seat. This was not the first time she'd had a crush on a teacher or professor, not by a long shot. This one wasn't even _her_ professor. Martha had convinced her to come sit in on her astronomy class so they could leave straight from there for their monthly roommate night out.

So, here she was, the lone art student in a room full of scientists, way overdressed in her favorite red dress, and lusting over the professor who was rambling on about black holes or something.

Definitely not the first time she'd developed an instantaneous crush on a professor but it was the first time the professor had been of the female persuasion.

Doctor Smith was tall and willowy and her eyes sparkled with enthusiasm as she talked to the mostly apathetic university students sitting in her class. Her wavy brown hair was pulled back into a low ponytail but some pieces had escaped to frame her face as she lectured and Rose's fingers itched to go tuck them behind her ears. The woman could only be a few years older than her and Martha despite already holding a doctorate and a teaching position.

She was taking in the way her oxford was just the slightest bit too tight when Martha jabbed her in the ribs with her elbow.

"Ow!" Rose whispered, tearing her gaze away from Doctor Smith and turning to frown at her friend. "What was that for?"

"You're ogling my professor," Martha whispered back, not even attempting to hide her smirk.

"You didn't tell me your professor was gorgeous," Rose said. There was no way she could even begin to deny Martha's claim. "Would've been a lot easier to get me to agree to sit through this lecture if you had."

"Wanted it to be a surprise."

"You _planned_ this?" Rose hissed.

"She looked like your type. God knows I'd be spending more time in office hours than necessary if I was into girls."

"So you just got me to come to your class so I could stare at your professor?"

"Pretty much, yeah." Martha's gaze turned back to the front of the room where she saw Doctor Smith's attention focused squarely on Rose who was still glaring at Martha. It wasn't the first time the good doctor's eyes had landed on her friend during the first half hour of class.

"You're not the only one who's distracted though," Martha leaned over and whispered once Doctor Smith was looking the other way. "She keeps finding you in the crowd."

Rose felt her cheeks turning pink. "That's what profs do though."

"Yeah, not usually this much though."

"Just let me ogle your professor in peace. Aren't you supposed to be actually paying attention or something?"

Martha's smile was triumphant as she turned back to the front.

The rest of the class flew by and before she knew it Rose was following Martha up to the front of the lecture hall so she could turn in an assignment as students started to file out.

Rose stood off to the side while Martha joined the queue. She was checking her email on her mobile and didn't notice someone coming to stand next to her.

"Bit late in the semester to be adding a class, isn't it? I know I haven't seen you here before."

Rose jumped, head snapping up to meet the curious look being directed her way by Doctor Smith.

"Might be because I haven't been here before," Rose said, tucking her hair behind her ears. "Not actually an astronomy student. My roommate dragged me along today because we have plans after your class."

Doctor Smith nodded, smile spreading over her face. "Knew I couldn't have missed you in the crowd for five weeks."

Rose's heart sped up a little bit. That had sounded remarkably like flirting. Maybe Martha had been right earlier about the professor paying more attention than necessary to her.

Really, she had nothing to lose so she grinned up at the woman. "Well, Doctor Smith, I might have showed up to one of your lectures earlier if I knew it was you teaching them."

The doctor's eyes slipped down to Rose's mouth as her tongue found its normal perch in the corner of her smile and Rose felt like cheering.

"Jane." The brunette blurted out, snapping her gaze back up to Rose's eyes. "I mean, my name is Jane. You're not one of my students so you don't have to call me by my title all the time."

"I do like your title though," Rose said. "Doctor seems like it fits you very well."

"Well, it is what most people call me," she admitted.

"I'm Rose." She held out her hand and had to fight back a shiver when the Doctor slowly wrapped her slender fingers around her hand, lingering longer than was necessary for a simple handshake.

"Nice to meet you Rose."

Rose really just wanted to jump her right then and there, butterflies in her stomach and people around be damned. The little smile on Jane's face, the one that was half confident smirk and half shy flirtation was just doing it for her.

"Rose?"

Martha's voice made Rose and the Doctor jump.

"Just a second, Martha." Rose said, shooting her friend a look and trying desperately to ignore the smirk and wink she got back.

"I'll be right outside when you're done," she said.

"Guess you have to go then," the Doctor said, not able to keep the note of disappointment out of her voice.

"Yeah, but maybe we could meet up sometime?" Rose asked, biting her lip. The butterflies in her stomach were doing acrobatics. "I mean, if you want."

"Coffee?" Jane ventured.

"Or chips. I never say no to chips," Rose said.

"How could I turn down an option that you won't say no to?" Her smile was wide and her eyes were sparkling as bright as the stars she taught about.

Rose held out her mobile. "Put your number in and I'll text you later."

The Doctor entered her info quickly and Rose slid her phone back into her pocket.

"See you later then, Doctor. Don't want to keep Martha waiting too long."

Jane just nodded and watched as Rose headed towards the door. Her eyes had to jump back up to Rose's face when the blonde turned around to give her one last smile before exiting the lecture hall.

Martha pounced on Rose as she soon as she came out.

"Okay, what just happened?"

"Oh, you know, just having a quick chat with Doctor Smith. Might want to take astronomy at some point," Rose said breezily.

"Come off it! The two of you were not talking about astronomy no matter how starry eyed you were looking."

"I was not looking starry eyed!" Rose protested.

"You so were. Now spill."

Rose couldn't keep the smile from blooming on her face. "Might have gotten your professor's number and set up a tentative date for the near future."

Martha stopped in the middle of the hallway, mouth agape. "You did not."

"I did!"

"Go Rose!" She high fived her friend.

"I'm so taking credit for this set-up, just so you know," Martha said as they started walking.

Rose just rolled her eyes good naturedly and pulled out her mobile to shoot the Doctor a quick text with her name so she had her number.

Hopefully they could find a time for chips soon because Rose was already dying to see Jane again.


	2. Chapter 2

Rose chewed on her bottom lip, shifting her weight from foot to foot as she waited outside of her favorite chippy. She was supposed to meet Jane here for their first encounter outside of the confines of Jane's lecture hall. Rose had definitely been calling it a date in her head for the past four days but her confidence was eroding with every tick of the clock.

She'd already managed to second guess every word they'd said or texted to each other over their short acquaintance, second guess the outfit she'd agonized over choosing before leaving the flat, and that was all in the span of ten minutes. Ten minutes that happened after Jane was supposed to have showed up for their date.

Rose checked her phone again and found it still devoid of any new message notifications. She toyed with it, flicking between her conversation with Martha and Jane, considering calling one of them. She was still making up her mind when the sound of trainers rapidly slapping against the concrete and coming straight towards her made her look up.

She was just in time to see Jane stumble to a stop right in front of her, long limbs almost tangling together in an absence of grace.

"Sorry I'm late!" she exclaimed, breath still coming out in pants as she recovered from her sprint. "Had a meeting with the department head and it ran over."

"So you ran here?" Rose asked, tongue sneaking out of the corner of her smile. It wasn't her best opening line but it was hard to pass up the obvious remark. Besides, have to cut a girl some slack when she's learning that breathless is a very good look on a certain professor. As are tight jeans and a pinstriped blazer.

God, she was in so much trouble.

"I did. I was worried you would've given up on me coming and left already," Jane admitted, voice steadier now.

Rose barely bit back a response that she wasn't giving up on Jane coming for her any time soon.

"Could've texted when you got out of your meeting," she said instead.

"Left my mobile in my office and didn't want to take the time to go fetch it. Not when I could head straight here."

"Well, I'm glad you showed. I've been looking forward to this." Rose's smile was a softer thing this time as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ears.

"As have I. Thank you for waiting." The sincerity in her voice was almost overwhelming.

"Anytime," Rose said with a hand wave. She could feel her cheeks tinting pink under Jane's gaze. "Food?"

"Wouldn't want to stand between you and your chips," Jane said, rocking back on her heels and jamming her hands partway into her jeans pockets. Her smile was devastating, dimples fully on display and eyes twinkling.

"You already know me too well," Rose answered, shoving lightly at Jane's shoulder.

Quick as a flash, Jane reached out to capture Rose's hand as it fell back to her side. She laced their fingers together then looked at Rose, gaze searching.

"This okay?"

"More than." This time it was Rose who was a little breathless and she didn't have any running to blame it on.

Their smiles were still bright as they entered the chippy. By the time they'd ordered and collected their food, the smiles had morphed into laughter. They sat across from each other at one of the small booths, knees knocking together underneath the table.

Jane made a face when Rose drenched her chips in vinegar but still stole a couple when she'd finished hers.

Conversation flowed easily. Rose told her about her art classes and the portfolio she was having to put together during this final year. Jane talked about how it got tricky sometimes teaching students who were only a year or two younger than her.

("How did that happen anyways?" Rose asked, toying with the straw in her drink. "I mean, I could tell just from what I heard at that one lecture that you're brilliant, but having a doctorate at twenty-four?"

"Started uni at fifteen," Jane said with a half shrug. "Academia always came easy to me so I flew through their programs and got my doctorate at twenty-one. Took them a few years to let me start teaching though.")

They talked about some events they'd both been to on campus and the museums in town and Rose discovered that Jane lit up when she brought up dreaming about traveling one day.

(It was a dream they both shared and Jane had stories of summers abroad that she promised to tell Rose some other time.)

(They both pretended that they weren't overjoyed at the prospect of another date being set up to be able to tell these stories.)

At some point, Rose reached over the linoleum table and rested her hand on Jane's. Their fingers twined together they'd already done this dance a million times before.

"So, any plans for the rest of the evening?" Jane asked, stroking her thumb across Rose's.

Rose made a face. "Have a painting I need to put the final touches on tonight so that it's completely dry by the deadline."

"Can I walk you back to your place?"

Rose bit her lip in a vain attempt to control her smile. "I'd like that."

They left the chippy as they'd entered, hand in hand and smiling. The whole walk to Rose's building, Jane told her about the stars that were visible in the sky above them. The speed of her speech increased the longer they walked and Rose got the impression that the more nervous Jane got, the faster she rambled.

Much too soon for Rose's liking they made it to the building that housed the flat she shared with Martha.

"This is me, Doctor," she said, pulling Jane to a stop.

Jane reached up and rubbed at the back of her neck as her gaze flicked from the building to Rose and back again. "Suppose it is. I, um, I had a lot of fun tonight."

Rose would've smiled at how obviously unsure Jane was if there hadn't been butterflies swarming in her own stomach. "I did too. We should definitely do this date thing again."

Jane's eyes shot to hers like a magnet at the mention of the word "date" and this time Rose couldn't help but smile at the excitement and relief she could read in the good doctor's expression.

"I'd like that."

"Good."

"Guess this is good night then?"

"Guess it is," Rose replied swaying slightly closer to the other woman and tilting her head up to look at her.

Jane moved to rest her free hand on Rose's cheek, gently drawing her thumb across the soft skin. "Is this okay?" she asked as she leaned down, breath hitting Rose's lips as she echoed the question she'd first voiced outside of the chippy.

"More than," Rose replied before bridging that final distance between their lips.

When they broke apart, Jane's hair was in even more disarray than usual from Rose's hands being in it and her lips were gorgeously swollen. Rose's fingers itched for her sketchbook as she took in the shellshocked look on Jane's face.

"Goodnight, Jane," she whispered, leaning up to press one final kiss to her lips. "Text me soon, okay?"

"Okay," she replied. (and oh, Rose had not needed more evidence for how good she sounded when breathless.) "Goodnight, Rose."

Rose backed up a few steps, not taking her eyes off of Jane before flashing her a smile and slipping inside the doors to her building. Martha was going to interrogate her as soon as she stepped in the flat but even that couldn't bring Rose down.

She was halfway through Martha's interrogation when her phone dinged with a message from Jane.

 _Texting you as soon as I got back to my mobile. Would've run but I don't think my knees were up to the task after kissing you goodnight. xx_

Rose grinned down at her phone, cheeks turning bright pink. Oh yeah, she was definitely a goner for Doctor Jane Smith.


End file.
